4 Tips for Keeping Kids Healthy, Fit, and Active — Health Med Cost

Kids are naturally active and love to play. However, as they grow, it can be challenging to exercise and practice a healthy lifestyle. The main culprits are our busy way of life, excess screen time, increasing demands at school, and even over-scheduling kids’ time.

Regular physical activity is essential because it can help children in many ways. They can improve fitness, stay in shape, build stronger bones and muscles. It will also reduce the risk of developing heart disease and diabetes type 2 later in life. Besides, it’s excellent for mental health as it reduces anxiety symptoms and allows kids to cope with stress better.

Here are some tips to encourage your kids to develop healthy habits and be active.

Set an Example

The best way for your kids to adopt an active and healthy lifestyle is through leading by example.

Incorporate at least 30 minutes of activity five times a week into your daily routine, and it will be much easier to get your kids to do the same. This activity doesn’t have to be anything elaborate. It can be a walk, a bike ride in the park, playing hide and seek, or dancing to music at home.

Sometimes you’re too busy to organize a proper exercise regimen every day. What you can do is sneak physical activity into your kids’ routine. You do so by taking stairs instead of using an elevator, parking a block away from your house, or taking a longer way home from your local store.

Don’t Use exercise as a Punishment.

Many parents make a mistake by having their kids run five laps or do ten pushups to discipline them.

That’s a surefire way of instilling the idea that physical activity is something unpleasant that they should avoid. It’s only logical to assume that kids won’t associate exercise with good times and fun — quite the opposite.

Not to mention that in some states, this can be illegal.

You want to encourage positive feelings about physical activity, so make sure to present it in the best possible light.

Emphasize fun!

While setting up some rules to avoid rough play is necessary, don’t make things rigid.

If you let them have it their way, they will more likely enjoy a game and look forward to doing it again.

Adding a fun element into your physical activity consistently achieves better results.

When it comes to the school setting, activities such as obstacle course racing, playing catch or Frisbee, kickball, or water sports can promote exercise. They can do so without insisting on complex rules that tend to be off-putting and discouraging.

Another critical factor in maintaining fun is helping kids pick their favorite activity, as that’s how they will eagerly practice it.

Finally, it’s worth mentioning that sports aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, so there’s no use in forcing your kids to participate in activities they don’t enjoy. If they don’t like organized sports, it’s OK, even if their exercise routine consists of walking a dog, running around the backyard, or playing hide and seek with their friends.

Introduce a Healthy Diet Early On

Following a healthy diet has become more critical than ever.

Junk food is usually hyper-palatable, so both kids and adults like it. However, being packed with sugar, artificial ingredients, and sodium, this processed food leads to obesity.

What’s even more dangerous, adolescents, in an attempt to maintain their weight without having to quit tasty burgers, fries, and shakes, resort to unhealthy practices.

To prevent this from happening, you should know how to tell if someone is bulimic, suffering from avoidant/restrictive food disorder, or rumination. These disorders can result in nutritional deficiencies, poor development, dehydration, acid reflux, tooth decay, or even hormonal imbalances.

Encouraging a healthy diet means:

• Eating whole grains and avoiding white bread
• Having at least half a plate of vegetables and fruits
• Eating lean meats and fish
• Serving smaller portions
• Eating slowly and not using smartphones at the table
• Drinking more water and avoiding sugary drinks
• Eliminating fast and processed food.

If you introduce healthy eating habits early on, your kids will be more likely to adopt and stick to them later in life.

Regular exercise paired with a balanced diet is the cornerstone of a healthy, active life. Help your kids adopt these habits, and remember it’s never too late to start.

About Stephen Jones

Stephen Jones is a freelance writer and a new father.

You can contact Stephen on Facebook or Twitter.

“Becoming a father for the first time is not easy. But it is so much happiness that complicated things are handled in the best way because the baby is a fruit of love, and he brings great satisfaction.” Stephen enjoys writing about health, food, nutrition, and children’s health for other parents. “Freelance writing has always been my passion, so I combined the two and hoped to be able to share my passion with others!”

Originally published at https://www.healthmedcost.com on June 11, 2021.